My graduation day is approaching. The last day, the proof that I did, in fact, survive.
I never expected this day to approach so quickly. One day I was nine, sitting on the playground with a journal clamped in my hands, watching the fellow nine-year-olds climb on monkey bars and swing on the swings...

I never liked you.
For you, I have always felt extremes. One or the other. Never anywhere in between.
I remember going to a basketball game in late February to see you with your friends; I don’t like basketball.
Even then I didn’t like you, but charm is a wondrous thing that you are full ...

I sit on the edge of my parents’ bed, watching tears pour from my brother’s eyes as my mom tells me that my brother is gay.
“How is he going to have kids?” I worriedly ask.
My biggest concern was not that my brother likes boys, but that I wanted nieces and nephews, and my 9-year-old brain had...

"Patience"
Junior Emily Mordecai, Ambush staff, remembers the tests of Cristales' patience all too well.
"Every deadline is a test of her patience. She gets stressed but she never loses her patience with us. She's still the kind and understanding person she always is and it's nice to know that she doe...

Vegas.
Pulse.
Virginia Tech.
Sandy Hook.
Sutherland Springs.
These events could have been avoided.
The people killed could have been protected.
Lives could have been saved.
America has remained ignorant to the many mass shootings within our country, and the lack of action equivoc...